


You don't snow me

by Anomiac



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Broody Carmilla, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, Cliche, Clumsy Carm, Denise is a god among men, F/F, Fluff, Happy Ending, Implied Lafontaine/Perry, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Light Angst, Sad, Shopkeeper Laura, Spirit of Christmas - Freeform, Traditions, hallmark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-25 21:18:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17128913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anomiac/pseuds/Anomiac
Summary: A woman with a hatred for all things Christmas finds herself trapped in Pine Noel, Illinois for the holidays when her flight makes an emergency landing and her car crashes into a snowbank just outside of town.orA cliche light and fluffy Hollstein Christmas fic that might make your heart warm enough to feel happy this Christmas.





	You don't snow me

**Author's Note:**

> Christmas is my least favorite holiday, yet I wear the sweaters, the Santa hat, and I write this for all of you. I hope every one of you have found yourselves in a place where you are unconditionally loved and accepted this season. Happy holidays.   

 

**-Day 1**

Pine Noel, Illinois is a homely little town that's just off the interstate near the boarder going into Missouri. It's a one stop shop for all of your pine tree needs -- and as such, the residents of Pine Noel have a tendency to go all out when the holidays are just around the corner. One resident in particular is especially diligent. In fact, she is the center of it all.

"Laura! Where do you want these ornaments?" A familiar heavy-set woman with graying brunette hair yells. She's wearing a red and green monstrosity of a Christmas sweater and holding a tall stack of boxes with round baubles printed on the sides, and it's teetering precariously. Laura runs over and takes some of the boxes from her. "Oh, you're so sweet, darlin', thank you!"

"It's no problem, Denise. Let's go put these next to the tree," Laura gives Denise her best smile. The older woman quickly follows her lead, and nearly slips on the ice and falls flat on her face. Laura grabs her arm before she falls, "be careful!"

"Twenty years livin' here and you'd think I would've learned how to walk on ice without slippin' like a cat in a kitty pool," the older woman chuckles as she rights herself. Laura laughs along with her. Denise is like a mother to her, and she doesn't know where she would be if it weren't for her. as they finally make it over to the undecorated Christmas tree in the center of town.

"It happens to the best of us," she tells her after both she and Denise set the boxes of ornaments down next to the tree. A wind blows through town and Laura shivers, regretting not having worn her heavier coat today.

"Oh honey, you must be freezin'! You better go inside and get yourself somethin' to warm you up. Don't worry, I'll take over for a smidge," Denise insists, and Laura never has able to refuse her, even when she was just sixteen and Denise was offering her a new home.

The bell on the door jingles when she enters the coffee shop, and most everyone there lifts their heads from their cups to wave a hello, or ask her how the planning for the upcoming festival is going. Her best friend Lafontaine walks up to her with a smile, and they hug as if they didn't just see each other yesterday. That's what people do in Pine Noel, Illinois.

"Laf! How was Perry last night?" Laura asks as as she takes the hot chocolate and marshmallow cookie she ordered from the barista.

"She's alright. She won't let me perform any experiments on the baby en utero, but I'm hoping maybe she'll let me at least do some genome mapping after she goes through all that labor stuff." they say. Laura smiles and shakes her head, marveling at the fact that her two best friends decided to get married and have a baby together. They make an odd yet somehow perfect couple. "How goes the party planning biz, Laura "Holly" Hollis?" They make air quotes with their fingers as they say Laura's middle name.

"Are you still doubting that Holly is actually my middle name? I showed you my birth certificate."

"It's too much of a coincidence, and you don't know how easy it can be to fake a certificate like that," Laf narrows their eyes at her before leaning back in their chair and taking a long sip from their coffee. The blonde woman sighs and decides to drop it.

"The festival is underway. We're holding an ornament placing ceremony on the tenth, and it should be a fun activity for the kids in town." The ornament ceremony was always her favorite tradition when she was younger. Every year her parents would take her out to the town center and they would spend hours having snowball fights and decorating the town tree.

Even after her mother died when she was ten and her dad got sick, her father still took her to the ceremony every year. After both of her parents passed by the time she was sixteen, celebrations like that became even more important in her life. Denise made sure of that. Naturally, she was the one who was elected to take over after the original head of the festival committee retired.

Every year she does the bulk of the planning for all of the events in town, and that's how she became Pine Noel's"Most Festive Person" three years running. However, festival planning is not all she does. She also has a festivities shop in town that she inherited from her parents. She sells various festive items depending on the holiday. It's a big success around Christmas and Halloween.

"Hey, who's that?" Laf asks, pointing to a brunette woman with very pale skin walking down the sidewalk with her phone to her ear. Her eyes are narrowed and her lips are pursed. One might assume that she's angry about something.

"I've never seen them before. Must be new in town," Laura says noncommittally as she keeps her eye on the woman and sips her hot chocolate. This woman walks far too fast to be anyone who has lived here for more than a couple days, and she's only wearing a leather jacket and ripped jeans in almost below zero weather. She must be here to visit family. The woman walks in the coffee shop and both Lafontaine and Laura go back to their drinks.

"No, mother, I don't know," she grumbles while waiting in line. "It's not my fault that the flight was canceled, I don't control the weather." Naturally, both Laf and Laura and everyone else in that cafe is listening in on the conversation, though nobody would be able to tell just by looking. "Yes, I bought a rental, but I-" the woman pauses and seems to mentally prepare herself before she continues, "No, Mother, I didn't hang up. I crashed the car in a snow bank and now I'm stuck in some small town in Illinois. Noel Pines, or something cliché like that."

It's rare that they get visitors, but it's not uncommon to have people who stop in for gas or food, since this town is just a mile off the interstate. For the very few people that visit, it's sort of common place for them to see this town and its residents as unusual. It is, for all intents and purposes, a dead end town, yet many people choose to live here.

"Okay. Yeah. I will talk to you when I can. Goodbye." The woman sighs and puts her phone away, and then proceeds to order a chocolate cookie, pay, and leave the coffee shop without a single glance to the barista or anyone sitting at the tables. After she leaves, everyone in the shop turns to each other with raised eyebrows, but Laura stares after the woman walking down the street with a napkin-wrapped cookie in her hand, wondering just where she came from.

Before much else could be said between the gossipers, the brunette steps onto a patch of eyes and hits the ground hard, her cookie flying from her hand and landing in the snow on the street. Every bone in Laura's body wants to launch out of her seat and go help her, but she holds herself back when she sees the woman is already halfway to her feet.

The cookie gets left behind, and that, to Laura, is the biggest tragedy this town has seen in years. 

As they got ready to leave, Lafontaine asked if Laura wanted to hang out sometime the next day, however the ornament placing ceremony is only three days away and they still have to put together the supplies for decorating the ornaments. That's the very reason Laura turned them down. They both went their separate ways after that: Laura back to Denise and the tree surrounded by other members of the decorating committee, and Lafontaine back to their pregnant wife.

Though, Laura didn't stay at the tree long. The committee seemed to have everything in check and told her to go get some rest for the next day. So she did. On the walk home, she walks past the place where the brunette woman slipped and fell with her cookie and laughs to herself at the image. She hopes she wasn't hurt too bad by the fall, and her heart goes out to that cookie.

 

**-Day 2**

 

The next day starts out the same as every other day, as it usually goes in a small town such as Pine Noel. Laura wakes up, brushes her teeth, has breakfast at the cafe--her usual, a chocolate muffin and caramel Frappe, and then opens up her shop. right across from the coffee shop.

She's tried, but ever since yesterday she couldn't seem to get that woman out of her head. She wishes she could go back and run out there and help her, however unnecessary her services might be.

Laura's not dumb, okay? She knows what this is, and knows it's completely irrational for someone she has never even talked to before. This is all based purely on physical attraction, and not about the brunette's personality herself. Maybe she would be good for a one night stand, if Laura were the type of person to do that.

Speak of the devil, who better to walk through the glass door while she's spaced out thinking about the new girl in town other than the new girl in town herself? The bell on the door jingles twice in succession and she sees her, far more appropriately dressed than the day before but still with a ways to go. She's wearing a black jacket that's a tad too light, black jeans with holes in the knees, and -- oddly enough -- bright pink gloves.

Laura watches her peruse the items, and eventually the brunette walks up to the counter and gives Laura an obviously fake smile, but she supposes it's the thought that counts. After all this woman has apparently had a weekend that landed her in the apparent middle of nowhere with nothing more than a couple outfits and a cellphone.

"do you only sell Christmas-themed items here?" she asks Laura. All of her logical thinking seemingly flew out the window and she replied without much thought about how her words would sound.

"The name of this town is 'Pine Noel' what would you rather us sell, ma'am?" The moment the words left her lips, she felt a pit of dread boil in her stomach.

The moody woman looks affronted, and Laura kicks herself for being such a smart ass about it. She doesn't know what's come over her! She's never like this with usual customers. Can this be another effect of how attractive the brunette is?

"You know what? Forget it. I'm sure there's another store that sells more practical items." She starts to walk away. Laura notices she left her pink gloves on the counter.

"Ma'am!" Carmilla turns around and raises an eyebrow, obviously not amused. Laura freezes under her intense brown eyes only for a moment before she quickly grabs the pink gloves and holds them out to her, "You forgot your gloves."

She walks back over to the blonde shop keeper, rolling her eyes either at her own forgetfulness, or at the obvious gay-neurysm that Laura experiences whenever she sees her. It's obvious to one if them, at least. She grabs one end of the pair of glove, the end that Laura doesn't have between her thumb and forefinger, muttering a "thanks."

"I don't know what you're looking for. but there's a shop just down the street. Hall's General. They sell pretty much everything. And there are more practical stores the further to the edge of town you get," Laura offers with a reserved smile, proud of herself for fibally doing something right with her training, although she's still forgotten to let go of the gloves so the woman can leave. The brunette smiles tightly, maintaining eye contact for a moment before breaking it and nodding. Laura takes the hint and lets go of the gloves.

"Thank you. I appreciate it. Have a good day," she tells the shop keeper as she clomps back to the front door in the biker boots Laura hadn't noticed before. At least she's being more cautious about proper winter footwear.

"Merry Christmas!" Laura shouts after her, waving, but the woman pauses just by the door and decides to put on her gloves before she's outside.

"I don't celebrate," she tells her, struggling to put her gloves back onto her hands. Yet again, Laura kicks herself for speaking without thinking. Not everyone celebrates Christmas. Hell, not even everyone in the town celebrates it, believe it or not. There are separate sections of the committee devoted to celebrating all sorts of types of holidays from all different countries.

"Oh... Forgive me. Happy holidays, Ma'am."

"No, I mean.. Just forget it." she sighs as she finally gets her other hand into her second glove. "See you 'round."

The bell jingles twice more, and Laura is left at the counter confused whether or not she made a friend or an enemy.

**-Day 4**

After that day, every day feels twice as longer as the previous, and she's not sure if it's because she's so busy or because she's seen no sign of the brunette since she walked into Laura's shop looking for 'non-Christmas related items'. Sometimes she gets a dreadful feeling in her stomach thinking that she offended her so badly that the girl feels the need to avoid her. Despite that, she still got the planning for the ceremony done and everything is in order for later that night. As such, she decided to treat herself to a chocolate-y reward at the cafe.

in the cafe, she gets in line and looks around the shop that quickly became her happy place when she started to become more independent and made friends. The people here were always warm and welcoming toward her, and it was very much appreciated. As she continues looking around, she didn't expect to see the elusive brunette walk through the door out of the corner of. She's wearing a beanie and a pair of gray gloves, a heavy black jacket and a pair of thick charcoal leggings. She looks more like a resident than a tourist now. Her palms start to get sweaty against the warm fabric of her gloves and she feels her face heat up.

"Hey, Laura," Kirsch, the barista for the day says. Quickly, Laura turns forward pays attention. "You want the usual?"

"Yes, please. And... could you do me a favor and put whatever the person behind me is getting on my tab?" She says more quietly. Kirsch agrees and gets her her usual. She leaves almost as soon as she gets it and starts walking back to her house.

Soon, however, she hears someone walking up behind her, "Laura!" calls a familiar voice. "Wait!" The blonde turns and it met with the brunette holding a cup of coffee and a white to-go bag.

"Oh, hey. I'm sorry about yesterday. I don't- I don't know why I responded like that. I'm not usually so... snarky."

"Dammit, is everyone in this town required to be a ray of sunshine?" the brunette groans. Laura tilts her head and Carmilla continues, "Is there a law against being in a bad mood?"

"No, I guess not, but it was unprofessional of me. I own that shop, and I'm Pine Noel's 'most festive person' soon to be four years running, and sarcasm isn't very festive in my opinion."

"Sundance, I wouldn't be talking to you right now if you kept up that weird facade of happiness and didn't treat me like the outsider I am. Trust me."

"That's true... I wouldn't have felt compelled to buy you a coffee otherwise. But still I would've-"

"No, cupcake. If you hadn't shown me that you aren't one of Santa's perfect little elves, I wouldn't be talking to you. It's creepy how everyone is... so happy."

"Well..." Laura starts, but then realizes she never got the woman's name, "I'm sorry, what's your name?

"It's Carmilla. Carmilla Karnstein."

"Well, Carmilla. If even the most festive person in this town can have a bad day, maybe you're judging everyone else too harshly. Maybe you're taking their kindness as their genuine personalities instead of their extreme efforts to be hospitable to someone who obviously doesn't want to be here."

Carmilla is silent for a moment before she smiles. It's one of those breathtaking smiles that emerges slowly but surely until it's the only thing you can see. "Now we're talking. Now you're being human."

"You think it's inhuman to be nice to others or to enjoy something like Christmas? Is that why you don't celebrate it?"

"I travel a lot, and people like you don't exist anywhere else, Cupcake. Hate to say it, but you and everyone else in this town are the odd ones out."

"People like me? What does that even mean?" Feeling targeted, she shifts her weight onto her other foot and crosses her arms. She's starting to regret paying for her order as a meager attempt at making amends. It's certainly coming back to bite her.

"People who haven't experienced any pain in their lives and have big, functional families that they can spend the holidays with and not hate themselves." Carmilla gives her a matter-of-fact glance and sips her coffee. Laura takes a deep breaths and does her best to resist the urge to slap that coffee out of her hand.

"This may be a small town that's barely even on the map and has very little internet access, but you're the one with a narrow perspective here, not me," she turns to continue walking back to her apartment, but before she can get too far a hand grab her arm and Carmilla is in front of her again, the smug look gone, replaced with something vaguely guilty.

"Hey, Laura, I'm sorry, I di-"

"I don't want to hear it," Laura sets her jaw and closes her eyes for a second to push past the anger she can feel swelling up. "If you really want to apologize, come to the ornament ceremony in the town center tonight at seven. Maybe you'll find a reason to all of our madness and you wont be so judgmental about the lives and emotions of people you don't even know." With that, Laura leaves Carmilla outside the coffee shop, completely too consumed in her thoughts to notice when she passes by Lafontaine and Perry who try to get her attention.

She's lived in this small town all her life, and for that reason she doesn't think she's ever come across anyone that isn't a child who doesn't know what happened to her when she was growing up. Her devotion to this town and its festivals was always understood because everyone experienced the loss she felt first hand. Except Carmilla. She doesn't know whether she should continue trying to be friends with her, but she feels equal parts determined to show her how amazing this place can be.

 

**-Later that night**

 

The ceremony starts in less than five minutes, and the town center is filled with people gathered around the tree with ornaments in hand. They all wear looks of excitement as they talk with their families are close friends. The sight of it makes her remember when she used to be the one in the crowd, her mom and dad on either side of her. They always had to hold onto her so she didn't go running face first into the tree from excitement. She looks down and covers her mouth to hide her smile.

While she does love these traditions, they also serve as reminders of the people who she was closest to who she lost so early on in her life. Her parents live on through them, and it is essentially the only time of the year when she feels closest to them.

She will forever be grateful that Denise forced her to go to the ceremony despite her having lost her dad just four months before. If she hadn't gone, she doesn't think she would have ever recovered from the slump she fell into. All she did was go to school, do homework and run the family shop with Denise. She hadn't known it then, and she didn't know how Denise figured it out, but what she really needed was to remember that family goes beyond parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, or siblings.

She felt it that night when everyone stood back to let her place the first ornament, which was decorated with a picture of her parents and her. She placed it front and center. Every ornament that year was placed to commemorate Laura's parents, and to show her that she will always have a family.

There is space for her to feel and be loved here because everyone made space for her, and that's what family does. She discreetly wipes a tear from her cheek and blinks a couple more away before walking up to the microphone placed in front of the tree.

"Good evening everyone!" She says, and everyone respond with hoots and hollers. "I'm glad you all took time out of your busy schedules to attend this small ceremony." Chuckles can be heard throughout the crowd; those who know how big this event is for her, and those who feel the same way she does.

"I think it's in order to thank all of the volunteers and members of the committee who assisted me in organizing this event and getting it set up. They're all sat over there. Stand up real quick so we can give you all a round of applause!" A group of maybe ten or so individuals stands to the left of the tree waving the the audience and smiling.

"I'd especially like to thank Denise for her work with getting all of the ornaments and forever restoring my faith in the holiday season," Laura smiles and Denise waves her away as if to say, 'stop it, you'. Again the crowd laughs with them. The decoration station is over to the left, and we have a cameraman over to the right. Last but not least, over toward the cafe we have various tables filled with cookies, cupcakes, and other delicious and admittedly unhealthy snack foods.

"This tree and the act of putting ornaments on it is better known in other places as 'decorating a Christmas tree' but here, we call it the Pine Noel tree. It is not meant to represent the spirit of Christmas. Instead it shows the spirit of this town and the interconnectedness of its people, above all races, religions, and creeds. I am honored to be able to run this event and put it together every year, and hope to do so for many years to come so that I can give back to all of you who supported me when I had nothing left. Now, without further ado, let's get this ceremony started!" she finishes with a broad smile and a flamboyant wave of her arm and quickly moves the mic stand out of the way.

The crowd splits into four separate groups: the parents who help lift their children to higher places on the tree, the families who chose to eat before decorating, those who chose to decorate an ornament instead of bringing one pre-made, and the parents who sit back and watch with glittering smiles.

The ornaments, those that were created at the event and as well as those brought by families who chose to bring their own, all showed a small section of the community -- even those that celebrate other holidays this time of year -- that combined together on the tree to represent the whole town. It almost brings tears to her eyes the second time that night remembering when she used to participate in this event with her parents.

A voice clears from somewhere behind her while she's focused on the commotion around the tree and she nearly jumps out of her skin. She whips around and faces the woman.

"You showed," the blonde says, taking a deep breath. The brunette skips formalities and jumps straight into it.

"I really didn't mean to offend you earlier. I'm... I have a chip on my shoulder, I guess. And that gives me no right to hurt the only person who has actually tried to actually be my friend in this town so far." Carmilla shrugs, looking down at her boots, "So, I'm sorry."

It shouldn't give Laura so much pleasure in letting Carmilla squirm for a few moments before she voices what her heart had already told her when she invited the brunette to the event in the first place. But it does. She guesses it has something to do with having a certain power over her, and being able to control someone who is so independent and in control all the time. Laura's cheeks redden, though nobody would consider it as due to anything other than the cold weather which has left redness on just about every face in town. Finally, she decides she's made Carmilla wait long enough.

"I forgive you," she says with a small smile and a nod, letting her arms fall to her sides. Carmilla smiles back, only glancing up for a second before looking back down. The brunette is surprised when she feels Laura's arms surround her and she barely has enough time to react and hug back before Laura starts to pull away. Carmilla doesn't remember the last time she was genuinely hugged without any vague feeling of responsibility to do so, and the shockingly pleasant feeling of having Laura so close to her encourages her to bring the short blonde back into her arms and return the hug in full.

"I'm glad."

"Why don't you decorate an ornament and put it on the tree with the rest?" Laura suggests, pulling back from the hug slightly. Her eyes almost immediately land on Carmilla's lips, which look so soft despite the cold, dry weather. She can't help wondering how they would feel against hers in that moment, but she doesn't give herself the chance to think about it any longer. She pulls away from the hug and grabs Carmilla's hand, dragging her over to the decoration station where several kids are playing with glitter and stickers.

"I don't know... I've never really done something like this before."

"You're in a new town, time to start experiencing all we have to offer, Carm!"

"Yeah, that too! I'm an outsider. I don't think they'd appreciate me participating in a ceremony in a town that I'll probably never see again." Laura stops, still holding onto the brunette's hand. She looks at her and tries to find the words that will help her understand. She doesn't know if she could ever explain properly.

"That's not what it's about. It's about acceptance, and showing people that they have someone on their side even when they feel left out. Visitor, resident. It doesn't matter, because this community is about acceptance and love. Everyone deserves to have that in their lives. Including you." Carmilla squeezes Laura's gloved hand in acknowledgement, but she can't seem to make herself smile. All she can do is search Laura's face to see if there's any hint of a lie.

The blonde's words hit a little too close to home. It isn't too hard to tell why she doesn't like to celebrate Christmas. The exact details remain yet to be disclosed, but the overall gist of her issue with the season has been made abundantly apparent, considering all that she's said to Laura that has hurt her. Her heart buzzes with the unfamiliar feeling of being in control of her life for once. The feeling of being accepted and supported by a group of people she met not even a week ago and is pretty sure most of which immediately disliked her despite not showing it outwardly.

She's beginning to get the appeal of living in a dead-end place like this, and every second she spends with Laura she's becoming more grateful that her flight had to make an emergency landing in the middle of nowhere, Illinois, and that she crashed her car into a snow bank because she had no clue how to drive in snowy weather.

Instead of saying anything else, she pulls Laura over to the table full of blank ornaments and craft supplies and gets to work on creating her own. Never would she had ever guessed that she would experience any actual enjoyment this close to Christmas. It was always a time of the year painted in a thick coat of depression that she'd rather wade through than try to avert.

She had no choice, after all. She's under her mother's thumb, despite being twenty seven and paying her own insurance and bills. What she had first considered a huge inconvenience, she's thankful that her flight never made it to New York. The blonde decides to get them some hot chocolate and donuts, and Carmilla finds herself distracted by her instead of working on her project. When Laura starts heading back, however, she remains working as if nothing had happened. She finishes her ornament a couple minutes later with Laura hovering just above her shoulder and giving her feedback and suggestions that aren't at all unwelcome.

The result is a ball full of glitter and decorated on the outside with stick figures and rainbows. She never claimed to be an artist. By her terms, this may very well be a masterpiece. From the look on Laura's face, she can tell that the quality of the ornament does not detract from the meaning. They stand and make their way over to the tree, Laura holding both donuts and drinks, and Carmilla carefully transporting the ornament over to the large pine that's already almost all covered with personalized ornaments.

All around her, people are laughing and hugging like family. She knows in her heart that she's never been a part of something that has warmed her heart so much. This night has successfully thawed her heart, and now it's raw and shivering with the need to be close to someone. Thankfully Laura is still by her side, eagerly awaiting her to place the ornament on the tree. Otherwise, she doesn't know what she would do with all of this overwhelming emotion that she feels.

Carmilla places her ornament near the front of the tree, next to a spot that's been almost completely left alone. When she turns around, Laura is smiling so wide that her face looks like it's about to split in half. She's never seen anyone more beautiful. It feels like Laura is poking tiny holes in her heart with a needle and thread, and sewing it back together, seam by seam.

They stand back and look at the tree in all its glory. By now, most of the crowd has disbursed, and only a few stragglers remain. Carmilla gets the sense that something's missing. And it only takes a second longer of looking at the tree to realize.

"What about your ornament?" Carmilla asks, bumping her shoulder against Laura's. The blonde's smile is the saddest she's seen on her face yet, and she wonders why. The shop keeper had mentioned in her speech that the woman named Denise was responsible for her enjoyment of the holiday, and at one point she had nothing left but this community helped her find something. Laura bumps her shoulder in return and reaches into her pocket. She pulls out an ornament, slightly dusty and faded with age, and holds it by the hook that looks to be at least a few years old.

"I usually place mine last. It's tradition." Carmilla inspects the ornament closer and sees what looks to be like Laura and two older people, a man and a woman. Obviously her parents. But she didn't see them at the ceremony today.

"My parents and I, we lived for this ceremony. Every year we'd go out and place an ornament on the tree and spend time together. It was... amazing. And," Laura takes a deep breath and places the ornament right next to Carmilla's, effectively filling the empty space, before she continues, "when I was ten and my mom died on the interstate, it was difficult to keep going to this event because I was so young and I didn't understand the meaning of all this yet. All I knew was that my mom wasn't there to help me decorate, and I didn't want to celebrate without her." Carmilla almost reaches to out her arm around Laura to comfort her, but she continues her story before she gets a chance to.

"And then, when I was twelve my dad was diagnosed with non-smokers lung cancer. Every holiday season after that became more and more important. Any day could be the last I got to spend with him. When he eventually did pass, I was sixteen and I had lost everything, it seemed. It took this ceremony to show me how wrong I was."

"Instead of having to leave Pine Noel and spend two years in foster care, a kind woman who used to be an employee at my parents' shop -- now my shop -- offered me a place to stay.

"Denise," Carmilla guesses. Laura nods and stands a little ways back from the tree. Carmilla slowly walks to stand next to her.

"She made sure that I never gave up hope on the holidays. She dragged me out to this very spot and promised me that if I never wanted to go again, I wouldn't have to. This community was what showed me that love still exists for me. It turns out I had almost everything I needed right here. I just needed someone to help me find it again."

"I'm so sorr-"

"Please, I've already forgiven you. You had no way of knowing." Carmilla wanted so badly to tell her that she'd never judge a human being before knowing them ever again, and that she's a changed woman, but she knows herself. She knows how empty her promises can turn out to be when it comes to putting her new-found revelations to the test.

All she can think right now is to be happy that this situation with Laura didn't permanently ruin her chances at friendship... or anything that might grow from it. But she can tell that this isn't the moment to press just how much if a horrible human being she is.

So instead, she drops the subject and puts an arm around Laura's shoulder like she had planned to earlier and guides her to her side. Somehow, it just feels right. It does for Laura too. Immediately she rests against Carmilla and lays her head on her shoulder. She smiles like a pine tree.

"Maybe someday I'll tell you my story." Laura looks up from where she rests her head on Carmilla's shoulder.

"Is that a promise?" She's tongue tied. She knows she'll be leaving sometime once the snow clears up, but she doesn't know how long that will take. But if she does know one thing, it's that she and Laura have something right now, and she wouldn't want to ruin that by cutting her off.

"Yeah, Cupcake. I suppose it is." The weight of the girl's head rests on her shoulder again and they continue watching the twinkling lights of the Holiday tree. 

 

 


End file.
